Pursuing an MBA seemed like a good career move for Julianna Cagle, a development officer at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. But she simply couldn’t commit to in-person programs nearby.
She turned to online learning, which she says provides her with experiences she would have also received at a physical campus: opportunities for collaboration with classmates, live class sessions with professors and support services to meet her needs.
Cagle selected MBA@UNC, the online program offered through the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, which ranks No. 3 in U.S. News’ Best Online MBA Programs.
“It is designed specifically for working professionals and people who do have lives outside of school,” she says.
Cagle is in good company, as business administration remains the top discipline pursued by online graduate students, according to a 2015 survey by the Learning House and Aslanian Market Research.
“We compete in a very open market for good talent,” says Phil Powell, faculty chair of online graduate programs at the Indiana University–Bloomington Kelley School of Business, the No. 2-ranked online MBA program. “The fact that our competition is fierce, open and that our students demand very high value and pay very high tuition, means we have to be responsive and adopt newer teaching methods faster than other parts of academia.”
In the programs offered through Kelley, UNC and Temple University’s Fox School of Business — the latter of which ranks No. 1 among online MBA programs — nearly all enrolled students have careers of their own. Some also have children.
For Cagle, mother to eight-month-old twin boys, the MBA@UNC program was flexible, allowing students to “tailor each quarter to their own lifestyle and their work-life balance.” She can take as many or few classes as she wants each term, and watch lectures on her own time.
Here’s what prospective online learners should expect in a top-ranked online MBA program, according to experts and students, when it comes to class format, work-life balance and virtual group collaboration.
Different Modes of Learning
An education from a top online MBA program includes both self-paced instruction, where students watch video lectures and complete readings on their own time, and live learning, where students gather in the online “classroom” — a learning management system such as Canvas or Blackboard — and actively participate using webcams.
This combination, experts say, is ideal for working professionals, like Scott Grady, an online MBA student in Temple’s program who lives in Pennsylvania. He says the asynchronous portion allows for significant flexibility, though the live sessions also have benefits.
The latter “fills that interactive need that we want to have in a formal learning environment, and allows for the debating and exchanging of ideas,” says the 38-year-old, a vice president of brand strategy for sheet music retailer J.W. Pepper & Son.
Students in Temple’s online MBA program take one class at a time over five-week periods; in other top programs, students can choose to take however many they wish. Once a week for four weeks, Temple students attend the live sessions through WebEx videoconferencing software, says Darin Kapanjie, managing director of online and digital learning at Temple’s business school.
[Learn how to decide between live and self-paced online classes.]
“They’re not just learning from the faculty, but they’re learning from one another,” Kapanjie says. Students are based around the world and work across fields, which means they are exposed to various cultures and disciplines in the program.
In the top three ranked online MBA programs, students have a number of ways to communicate with each other, including discussion boards on different learning management systems, which are typically mobile-friendly. Students interact with professors, meanwhile, in different ways, whether it’s the discussion board, email or even by text, experts and students say.
Today’s online students rarely struggle to adapt to the technology these programs use, Powell says, as digital technology is prevalent in workplace environments.
Prospective online MBA students should be aware that their program might have in-person requirements, and might also offer options to travel to other countries.
At MBA@UNC, for instance, students must attend at least two immersions in the U.S. or overseas to participate in activities such as case competitions. Kelley offers opportunities to work with businesses in other countries, and has two on-campus requirements in Bloomington.
Balancing an Education With Work, Family
Juggling a job and education can be challenging for working professionals, experts say. But it’s doable if they budget their time accordingly.
Kristi DeSimone, a student in Temple’s online program who works as director of communications for customer sales experience at Comcast, says she’s constantly thinking about how to manage her time for the week. She listens to class lectures while she’s working out, or on a plane as she travels for work.
“It is a fair amount of work; it’s all about making sure you prioritize and keep learning 24/7,” DeSimone says.
[Discover essential time management tips for online students.]
But add in raising children, and time management in a top online MBA program becomes even tougher. It’s important, experts say, to communicate often with a spouse or partner, and also squeeze in time to spend with family.
Sean Greer, an online MBA student at Kelley who lives in Virginia, balances his education and a career, and also has a son, with a daughter on the way. He credits his family for working with him to fit everything in.
Virtual Collaboration in the Online Classroom
Group work — which might entail developing business plans and virtual presentations — is common in top online MBA programs, experts say. And virtual collaboration is a skill that’s critical for conducting business in the 21st century.
[Follow these five steps before starting online group work.]
At MBA@UNC, each student has his or her own virtual “room” to collaborate with others on projects or assignments, says Doug Shackelford, dean of UNC–Chapel Hill’s business school. Instructors can also separate students in a class into breakout groups with the push of a button.
Grady, the online MBA student at Temple, says he meets with other students primarily through WebEx, though they also communicate through other means.
“We don’t try to emulate teamwork in residential programs,” Powell says, of Kelley’s online program. “We’re trying to model teamwork that’s going to work in a virtual environment.”
Trying to fund your online education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for Online Education center.
More from U.S. News
5 Tips for Applying to Online MBA Programs
3 Career Reasons Why Students Get Online M.B.A.’s
Compare Top Online, On-Ground MBA Programs Through Data
What to Expect in a Top Online MBA Program originally appeared on usnews.com
